Transmitting data in a consist may allow control systems to monitor and coordinate systems of a locomotive and/or consist, such as brakes, speed, and power. Traditionally, data may be transmitted by various cabling techniques between the railcars making up the consist. Because there is a gap between railcars, the cabling may be exposed to the weather and may be susceptible to the turning, twisting, and pulling of the railcars. As a result of such conditions, communication cables may be prone to failures that prevent the transmission of data. Data transmission failure may cause numerous problems or delay the operation of the consist.
One system for communicating data in a consist is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0282525 (“the '525 publication”). The '525 publication is directed to a communication system for a vehicle consist including a control module that interfaces with at least one of a first router transceiver pair or a redundant router transceiver pair. Each of the router transceiver pairs of the '525 publication may communicate network data between vehicles of the consist over a cable bus of the vehicle consist. The control module may include a monitor module to monitor operation of at least one of the first router transceiver pair or the redundant router transceiver pair. The control module may also include a switch module operably coupled to the monitor module to control the first router transceiver pair or the redundant router transceiver pair to communicate the network data over the cable bus if the other of the first transceiver pair or the redundant router transceiver pair enters a failure condition for being unable to communicate the network data over the cable bus.
The system provided by the '525 publication may suffer from a number of possible drawbacks. For example, the '525 publication may only provide a system for redundantly transmitting data, but does not provide a system for repairing erroneous, corrupted, or incomplete data. Furthermore, redundant transmissions such as those disclosed in the '525 publication may require high bandwidth capacity. Often, large transmissions such as video data may exceed the bandwidth capacity, which may prevent transmission of data critical to the operation of the consist.
The presently disclosed systems and methods are directed to overcoming and/or mitigating one or more of the drawbacks set forth above and/or other problems in the art.